What I learned this semester

            The class that I most looked forward to lecture and doing the homework for was by far IEOR 190G with professor Tal Lavian. This is one of the first classes that I have taken at Cal in which the material we learned was directly relevant to the real world. Our homework even included write-ups on real world cases, which kept me knowledgeable with regard to what was happening in the industry. One of my favorite aspects of the class were the guest speakers from the Intellectual Property community. As a business major, I was really interested in how patents affect the value of a company, and the importance of patents in creating a business strategy. I also learned a lot about the niches of patent litigation. For example, the East District of Texas sees a lot of patent cases due to its pro-plaintiff bias! This class has really sparked an interest in patents for me, which I had little to no knowledge before. This week, I was a volunteer at the Keiretsu Forum, a venture capital expo with 12 startups pitching. A lot of the investors questions had to deal with the companies patent portfolios and hot the licensing and sale of patents could help mitigate failure risk and loss of investment. Having taking IEOR 190G, I was able to understand the different types of intellectual property protection. When I am evaluating devices and services, I now look at things through a patent perspective, which I had never before thought of. I really enjoyed this class, and am excited to continue my involvement with SCET and hopefully take other classes with Professor Lavian.